State Control of Charities and Corrections 17 



and, since their friends are in them, they have a right to know 

 what conditions prevail. 



Third — The members of the various local boards of trustees 

 of state institutions are instructed by an advisory board of state 

 charities and become familiar with the problems involved, so that 

 these forty or fifty citizens are educated and become instructors 

 in charity in all parts of the state. 



Fourth — The general secretary of the advisory board and his 



office force, being relieved of financial details, devote their whole 



• time to securing and coordinating knowledge for the benefit of 



the state institutions. In this way superintendents are greatly 



helped, and the inmates of all the institutions are benefited. 



Fifth — The advisory board corrects many abuses in state in- 

 stitutions by its thorough investigations and by its incessant 

 publication of information. 



Sixth— It fosters individuality in the superintendents of state 

 institutions. 



Seventh — The advisory board secures economy in the expendi- 

 ture of funds equal to the econoni}' secured by a state board of 

 control. This argument is insisted upon, especially in Indiana, 

 where it is claimed that the showing is equal to the showing 

 made by the board of control of Iowa. Mr.. Amos W. 

 Butler, the general secretary of the Advisory Board of State 

 Charities of Indiana, recently made the following statements : 



"Six years ago the annual cost of official outdoor relief and 

 medical assistance in Indiana was $630,000. As a result of study 

 of conditions the Board of State Charities recommended a change 

 in the law^ One law after another, bearing on the administra- 

 tion of outdoor relief, was successively passed to secure by pro- 

 gressive stages the desired results. x\fter six years the amount 

 given was reduced to $210,000 a year, and the testimony of all 

 was that the poor were never so well cared for as they were under 

 the new laws. Many were fearful that the poor asylum popula- 

 tion would increase as a consequence. The^ result is that each 

 year the number of inmates has been continually decreasing in 

 the poor asylums of the state. The proportionate reduction of 

 poor asylum, inmates in ten years has been about seven hundred. 



373 



